Game Design Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

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- Game studies, Game Design, Video Games, Video Game Design

Abstract.
BACKGROUND: One of the most serious concerns of parents, caregivers, teachers and therapists is children’s independent living, particularly of those with special educational needs (SEN). Purpose-built programs for the acquisition of independent living skills are considered a priority in special education settings. The main problem is the inefficacy of detached interventions to meet the needs of as many students as possible.
OBJECTIVE: Our response is to create transmedia applications for inclusive learning environments. To this end, we have taken a participatory design approach to develop a project for Daily Living Skills Training by combining special education pedagogies, filmic methods, game design and innovative technologies. In this paper, we present the design and development of Waking up In the Morning (WUIM), and its improvement through user-based and expert-based evaluations by students, therapists and developers. The main research purpose is to confirm if: (1) the final products of the WUIM project could be educational resources for students with SEN and (2) the common gaming experience could promote collaborative learning, regardless of students’ cognitive profile.
METHODS: During the alpha phase, we developed and improved WUIM. In July 2020, we implemented and evaluated WUIM in special education settings (beta-phase). More specifically, a quantitative and qualitative formative evaluation was conducted with children who have developmental disabilities (N=11), their therapists (N=7) and developers (N=2). Methods of data collection included questionnaires filled in by therapists and developers, participant observation by researchers and interviews with children.
RESULTS: The results of the formative evaluation were generally positive regarding four-factor groups that shape the learning experience: Content, Technical characteristics, User state of mind, Characteristics that allow learning. After the design team reviewed the potential users and experts’ comments that were mainly related to the user interface, the application was improved.
CONCLUSIONS: The two hypotheses have been largely confirmed. Overall, we propose a simplified development process that showcases the importance of arts-based methods and aesthetics which deliver representational fidelity. The study reveals the necessity of developing transmedia learning materials to meet each individual’s needs.

- by Polyxeni Kaimara and +2
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- Game Design, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Game Development

Measuring user experience in board games is broadly unexplored with research mainly focused on digital games. This paper assesses the suitability of using a questionnaire, developed for digital games, for use on board games - thus providing a common measure of user experience between board and digital games. The study involved play testing a themed board game with undergraduate computing students and alumni, measuring user experience via the Games Experience Questionnaire whilst testing for reliability and validity. Findings obtained high scores in both criteria, suggesting that the GEQ is a suitable tool to measure user experience in board games and thus a valid candidate for comparing game design across varied game media such as digital and board games.

- by Jonathan Barbara
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- User Experience (UX), Game Design, Board Games, Transmedia

This thesis investigates urban soundscapes through videogame media experimentation. The main concern is to understand the procedures, logic and operational methods within game design processes, as a means of finding novel forms for expressing and comprehending urban sonic environments.
Our main objective, thus, is to enhance the urban soundscape representation process, considering that videogame simulations can fulfill gaps currently found in other media, such as noise maps. We assume, throughout the thesis, that the procedural, interactive and symbolic nature of games contribute to this enhancement, by engendering new ways of operating sound environments and handling its qualitative aspects.
The research is conducted through the development of a prototype, built within a game engine environment, and is part of an ongoing research in LAURD – PROURB, that exploits digital tools applied to urban studies, focusing, currently, on the area of Largo de São Francisco, in Rio de Janeiro.
Aside from creating a virtual sonic environment of the study case area, based on the research demands, the major contribution of this thesis is the design of a system – with variables, simulation behaviors, components and rules – that represents urban soundscapes and allows different kinds of simulations. Throughout the development of the prototype and as result of a “gamified” filter, new forms of engagement with Rio de Janeiro´s soundscape emerged, contributing to the rise of a specific approach that emphasizes the referential importance of sound in urban studies.
The prototype can be accessed in:
PC: goo.gl/E1chyr
MAC: goo.gl/KCXVFa

- by Marcio Nisenbaum
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- Game Design, Video Game Design, Soundscape Studies, Arquitetura e Urbanismo
- by Gordon Calleja
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- Human Computer Interaction, Game studies, Usability, Game Design

Commercial "war" games in a post-1989 setting are popular among a large audience. They offer players an enjoyable gameplay experience, while also referring to contemporary Bwar^ scenarios. As such, they have been studied in several ways, e.g., concerning the "realistic" nature of how they depict warfare. However, little is still known about the way in which the notion of "war" is conceptualized in these games. To fill this gap, this article offers a systematic analysis of the narrative content of 15 popular "war" games set after 1989, as well as their promotional descriptions, as these provide insight into how publishers respond to the interests of players. This is done based on the conceptual framework of conflict/war offered by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP).

- by Pieter Van den Heede and +2
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- Game studies, Conflict, War Studies, Game Design

This study aim to explore the use of video games in education their advantages and disadvantages. So what is a Video game? But a set of problems in a certain area that needs to be solved in order to advance, for example the game Civilization is a set of problems in history, Fallout 4 is set of problems in survival. All video games have a different set of problems that need solving in order to win or advance. Strategy games are the hardest kind of games, due to their complex design and nature with hundreds of variables and many outcomes. If a kid finishes these games on hard after thirty hours of game play, we do not give them a test to assess their understanding of the game because we trust this complex design of the game (Gee J. P., 2011). We have evolved to design and teach this complex games, so the next step of our evolution is to create a learning experience that immersive, deep, and rich with information.

- by Husam A . S . Khalifa and +1
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- Education, Game Design, Video Games and Learning, Video Game Design

Games are a type of vehicle with which society is changing at present-day. But how the games themselves will be changed by society, is an interesting question to ask for enhancing and initiating better design of games. As participation in gaming upsurges around the world and across a larger part of the population, it is obvious that games are not only an entertainment medium for children or young people anymore. Games can be used to accomplish different purposes for different groups of people in the society. Design and use of games for learning and/or educational purpose has been an important research field for several years. However, this research field is yet to deliver expected achievement and result, despite many efforts and resources put into it. Factors that are important to consider for designing a game that will motivate users to active involvement in playing a game for active learning, are crucial for the successfulness of the design of such a game. The design goal for educational games would be to produce games that motivate users and thereby achieve effective learning. This paper proposes a framework in which the parameters of what users want from a game are considered for the development of games for learning. The framework is based on the previous research and theory of Richard Rouse (2001), who defined different dimensions of game design in terms of learning. The proposed framework is important in order to investigate and assess the success of existing games used for learning. Also the framework can provide better understanding as a requirement engineering tool for game designers, who are to design games for learning and educational purposes in the future. The proposed framework was verified using a small quantitative analysis. It was found that, while some parameters of the framework indeed have significance for designing games for learning, there are additional factors that need to be discovered by further analysis and research to enhance the usability of the framework.

- by Tobias Nyström
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- Human Computer Interaction, Game Design
- by Katrin Becker
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- Literacy, Teacher Education, Serious Games, Game Design

sürecin etkili ve eğlenceli hale getirilmesi, öğrenenlerin dikkatinin çekilmesi, öğrenmeye karşı motivasyonlarının arttırılması, görselleştirme ve problem çözme yeteneklerinin geliştirilmesi açısından da güçlü bir öğrenme aracı olarak karşımızaçıkmaktadır. Eğitsel bilgisayar oyunları öğrenenlerin 21. yy. becerilerini kazanmaları için eğlenirken öğrenmelerini sağlayan yeninesil öğrenme ortamları olarak da düşünülebilir. Bununla birlikte öğrenenlerin psikomotor, bilişsel, psiko-sosyal gelişiminde deoyunların önemli bir yeri olduğu söylenebilir. Dijital oyun geliştirmek isteyenlerin bu oyunları kullanıcıların kullanabileceği hâle getirebilmesi için genellikle öğrenmesi zor ve zaman alan programlama dilleri ve tasarım araçlarının kullanılması gerekmektedir.Öte yandan özellikle eğitim alanında kullanılacak olan dijital oyunların tasarlanması sürecinde, programlama bilgisinin yanı sıraödül mekanizması, güdüleme, dönüt, etkileşim vb. farklı eğitsel oyun bileşenlerinin de pedagojik olarak ele alınması gerekmektedir. Bu yüzden eğitsel bir oyun tasarımı gündeme geldiğinde gelişmiş bir programlama becerisi ile beraber eğitseloyun tasarımının temellerini oluşturan bileşenlerin etkili bir pedagoji ile yapılandırılabilmesi de gündeme gelmektedir. Eğitseloyun geliştirmek amacıyla kullanılabilecek çok sayıda platform bulunmaktadır. Bu platformların birçoğu nesneye dayalıprogramlama becerisini öğretebilmek amacıyla eğitsel bağlamda kullanılırken, bazıları da programlama bilgisi gerektirmeksizindaha iyi oyun tasarımları yapılabilmesine yardımcı olmaktadır. Bu kapsamda bu çalışmada eğitsel oyun geliştirme sürecindedoğru stratejilerin uygulanması amacıyla Akgün vd. (2011) tarafından geliştirilen “Sarmal Eğitsel Oyun Tasarımı Modeline” göredijital bir oyun geliştirilmesi amaçlanmaktadır. Bu çalışma çerçevesinde isimli oyun tasarım motoru ile “SarmalEğitsel Oyun Tasarımı Modeline” göre oyun geliştirme sürecine yer verilmiştir. Geliştirilen oyun ile öğrencilere bilgisayımsaldüşünme ve programlama mantığının öğretilmesi ve öğrenenlerin problem çözme becerilerinin geliştirilmesi amaçlanmaktadır.Çalışmada tasarlanan oyun ile ilgili analiz, tasarım, geliştirme ve uygulama ve değerlendirme boyutlarında gelişim süreçlerineyer verilmiştir.

- by Murat Cinar and +1
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- Computer Science, Educational Technology, Game Design, ICT in Education
- by Gordon Calleja
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- Music, Game studies, New Media, Digital Humanities

Pervasive games are an emerging new game genre, which includes context information as an integral part of the game. These games differ from traditional games in that they expand spatio-temporal and social aspects of gaming. Mobile devices support this by enabling players to choose when and where a game is played. Designing pervasive games can be a challenging task, since

- by Janne Paavilainen
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- Computer Science, Game Design, Information Flow, Mobile Device

Gameplay in single-player shooter games primarily consists of combat with Non-player Characters (NPCs). However, there has been little research done to study how enemy NPCs affect player behavior in shooter games. As a consequence, there is no formal language for designers to discuss how NPCs are used in shooter games. This paper presents design patterns for NPCs in shooter games and explores their effects on gameplay. These patterns help designers communicate about and explore new ideas for enemy ...

- by Gabriel Rivera
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- Game Design, Design Patterns

This paper explores the design of jumping in 2D platform games. Through creating a method for measuring existing games, applying this method to a selection of different platformer games, and analysing the results, the paper arrives at a comprehensive data model for jumping. The model supports the exploration, design and development of new jump implementations. The underlying framework and toolset can be used by game designers to measure, model and analyse movement in platform games.

This paper will offer a close analysis of time loops as a narrative device in two recent videogames, Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital 2019) and Deathloop (Arkane Studios 2021). While far from a new phenomenon in videogames, nor other media (David Bordwell 2002; Jan Simons 2008), recent years have seen the release of various titles like Outer Wilds, Deathloop, Twelve Minutes (Luis António 2021), The Sexy Brutale (Cavalier Game Studios 2017), Loop Hero (Four Quarters 2021), Returnal (Housemarque 2021) and more that place time loops as central to their experiences. I argue that time loops narrativize something that is already implicit across most videogames – repetition. As Brendan Keogh (2018, p. 145) argues, “through character deaths, saved files, checkpoints, action replays, Let’s Play videos, walkthroughs, skippable cutscenes, lag, fluctuating framerates and countless other phenomena, time travel is a banal feature of videogame play”. Every game with a save/load feature already contains time loops. Acknowledging them within the gameworld essentially narrativizes elements like repetition and failure that are frequently part of play but outside of a game’s storyworld. This paper therefore intends to offer a close analyse of their inclusion in Outer Wilds and Deathloop and determine what impact narrativizing repetition has on how videogame time loop’s function.

- by Cassandra Barkman
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- Game studies, Game Design, Video Games, Narratology

With the rapid integration of mobile devices and localization tech- nologies like GPS in our every day life, the interest for using combined tech- nologies for entertainment is also growing. This is the idea of location-based games, which take use of localization technology and integrate the player's po- sition into their game concept to generate a pervasive game experience. For this class of games we provide a systemization method not solely based on the tech- nological dimension but also from the game conceptual and spatial-temporal dimension. The systematization is further used to derive a game design method which utilizes these three game design dimensions. By variation of the parame- ter values in these dimensions new location-based games can be designed. As an example our proposed method is illustrated with an existing location-based game, GeoTicTacToe.

- by Sebastian Matyas
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- Game Design, Mobile Device, Pervasive Game, DESIGN SPACE
- by Ricki Goldman
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- Computer Science, Game Design, National Science Foundation, Self Efficacy
- by Mike Dixon
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- Engineering, Computer Science, Design, Game Design
- by شاهر شاهر
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- Game Theory, Game studies, Game Design

This paper examines how narrative-centered learning environments are establishing themselves as affordable and effective alternatives to traditional text-based delivery models, static computer-based tutoring systems, and immersive, role-playing computer game-based resources. Drawing upon long-standing cultural traditions while embodying constructivist principles and relying on cognitive theories that detail the
processing of word-driven information, narrative-centered learning environments arequietly, and quite naturally, winning over the minds of educators and students alike.

- by Robert Wright
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- Game studies, Distance Education, Narrative, Cognition
- by Robert Hone
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- Game studies, Game Design
- by Paola Venuti
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- Game Design, User interfaces, Virtual, Typical Development
- by Ashoka Priyadarshana
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- Game studies, Game Design, Anarchism
- by eric sanchez
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- Engineering, Higher Education, Game Design, Digital Culture

- by Gabriel Rivera
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- Game Design, Design Patterns

Serious games are emerging as an important outgrowth of the video gaming in-dustry. Entertaining games, such as Flight Simulator and SimCity, are already in use in schools and universities across the country, and the number of serious... more

- by Atsusi Hirumi
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- Computer Science, Instructional Design, Game Design, Game Based Learning
- by Joachim Vlieghe
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- Serious Games, Game Design, Video Games and Learning, Video Games

Cette thèse présente les résultats d'expérimentations visant à mettre en évidence des mécaniques de jeu utiles pour aider le joueur à développer une posture plus réflexive sur la manière dont il prend une décision. Notre approche consiste à mettre le joueur en défaut en exploitant ses biais de raisonnement, permettant dans un second temps de l’amener à mieux cerner ses processus décisionnels. A ce titre, nous cherchons à placer le joueur en excès de confiance dans le cadre spécifique d'un jeu vidéo. Pour mesurer le comportement, le joueur doit utiliser un outil intégré au déroulement de la partie : un système de mise au travers duquel il renseigne sa confiance en ses chances de succès. Deux jeux spécifiques ont été développés en vue de mesurer l’influence des biais sur la confiance du joueur : un se focalise sur l’influence des biais d’ancrage et de confirmation, l’autre sur l’influence du biais de l'effet difficile / facile d’autre part.

- by Thomas Constant
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- Computer Science, Judgment and decision making, Overconfidence, Game Design

Japan is a super-aging society, one marked by a steadily silvering population and shrinking birthrates. Social effects range from a decline in intergenerational homes to new tensions between the generations as elders delay retirement or return to work. Towards improving relations between the generations, two versions of an inclusive, intergenerational game employing "shared action," or time-movement synchrony, were developed: a finger-based version inspired by medical exercise technology from gerontology and a smart shoe-based version as a familiar form factor. A series of three exploratory studies were conducted with young Japanese adults and elders. Findings suggest that the foot version was most suitable overall and reveal initial, complex effects of age and gender on empathy measures that can inform affective computing initiatives within and beyond the cultural milieu of modern Japan.

- by Kaba Gassama
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- Game studies, Game Design, Video Games

FIFA 16 is an upcoming association football simulation video game published by EA Sports for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Android and iOS. The game is the first in the FIFA series to include female... more

- by Nicole John
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- Game studies, Game Design, Video Games

Figure 1: JECRIPE- a game for children with special needs Abtract There are not many initiatives in the area of game development for children with special needs, specially children with Down syndrome. The major purpose of our research is to promote cognitive development of disabled children in the context of inclusive education. In order to do so, we address aspects of interaction, communication and game design in stimulating selected cognitive abilities. By using a Human-Computer Interaction method based on the Inspection of Evaluation, it was possible to study and understand user interaction with the interface and thus examine the positive aspects as well as the communicability problems found with the JECRIPE game- a game developed specially for children with Down syndrome in pre-scholar age.

- by Jason Hong
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- Computer Science, Design, Human Factors, Security

The paper explores the recent growth in critical gameplay, an application of critical design to the production of computer games. This paper outlines play pedagogy and game rhetoric, relating critical design practices to the creation of computer games. It attempts to explain the art practice of critical game design, providing a brief digital game history and identifying prominent creative works in this relatively new space.

- by Lindsay Grace
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- Critical Theory, Game studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Game Design

With the ever-increasing number of applications for mobile phones, we are more and more likely to be confronted with a problem of a separation from our environment when looking at our screen. It can be easily illustrated with a mobile game that uses the real world as a platform (a location-based mobile game). Typically, the player must stop to look at the screen to get information, which then can alter the dynamics of the gameplay. One solution is to incorporate this constraint into the design of the gameplay, but there are also other options to solve this disconnect issue. The FeelTact project proposes an innovative approach that does not use the screen as the primary output device. Instead, it concentrates on maximizing rich tactile feedback, as opposed to simple vibrations. The FeelTact device is a new type of tactile bracelet that will drive the information a player receives. The first FeelTact game is an audiotactile mobile game based on an urban navigation system. The results ...

- by Charles Lenay
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- Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, Game studies, Web Design
- by Angel Montero Bello
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- Social Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Communication, Game studies
- by Julio Núñez
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- Game studies, Game Design
- by cathie sims
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- Mobile Technology, Game Design, Video Games and Learning, Video Games

With hundreds of new games being released every week, designers rely on existing knowledge to design control schemes for their products. However, in the case of games with new game mechanics, designers struggle to implement new button schemes due to the lack of research on players’ adaptation to new and non-standard controls. In this study we investigated PC players habits when playing a game they have no knowledge of, and how they adapt to its non-standard control scheme. Data was collected by using a specifically designed game instead of relying on pre-existing ones, allowing us to design specific game mechanics to exploit users’ habits and monitor players’ behaviour in their home environments. Preliminary results seem to indicate that PC players do pay attention to control schemes and are able to quickly learn new ones, but they also prefer to make mistakes in favour of execution speed.

- by Mata Haggis-Burridge
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- Computer Science, Human Computer Interaction, Game studies, Game Design
- by Jussi Holopainen
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- Game Design, Graphic Design, Design Research, Software Design
- by Richard Lester
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- Game Theory, Game studies, Game Design
- by Nor Azan Mat Zin
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- Computer Science, Instructional Design, Game Design, Video Game
- by Lindsay Grace
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- Engineering, Game Design, Video Game Design, Hacking

In May 2019, A Night in the Forum videogame was published in the Sony PlayStation store, for PS VR. It was the final result of the REVEAL EU project, whose goal was to identify strategies, features, and tools to develop educational titles in a more efficient, cost-effective, and valuable way, exploiting their educational, cognitive, and engaging potential for schools and cultural tourism. Environmental Narrative videogames was chosen as a genre suited for this purposes. This article presents how known issues in the production of videogames have been faced, the solutions identified, and results obtained

- by Sofia Pescarin
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- Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Serious Games, Game Design
- by Mark Alavosius
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- Psychology, Game Theory, Game studies, Education

Mit diesem Titel liegt eine veröffentlichte Magisterarbeit vor, deren redaktioneller Beschreibungstext auf dem Buchrücken einen „Blick über den Tellerrand hinaus“ verspricht. Dieses Versprechen soll sich durch drei Leitaspekte einlösen, die den Einfluss von virtuellen Welten auf das menschliche Verhalten fokussieren, zweitens das Suchtpotenzial und die Isolation von der Außenwelt thematisieren und drittens die neuen sozialen Komponenten beleuchten, die durch die ‚Begehung’ virtueller Welten ermöglicht werden.

- by Lars Christian Grabbe
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- Semiotics, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Game Theory